


Loyalty

by BluntHarpoon



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: 8x24, Coda, Loyalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-06 01:38:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14631381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluntHarpoon/pseuds/BluntHarpoon
Summary: He is pathologically loyal. He has a feeling he has Joe to blame for that.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> New writer here. Suggestions, concrit, ideas are more than appreciated!  
> Thank you for reading

 

 

It never got easy. He was indebted to Joe. No questions about that. But now, after knowing what he had known, going through what he had, he just wasn’t sure what Joe’s motivations had been all along.

Being used as a tool, as a weapon, by his country, by the Navy, that was understandable.  
Something he had signed up for, reasons notwithstanding.

To be used by someone who called him _son_? Just so he could be turned into a killing machine? He knew that boys like him - men like him - made the best soldiers. No family to speak of, no home, no roots, no one waiting, no one caring if they lived or died. Guys like him who lived and breathed Navy were the ones the Navy loved to have.

But to have the man he trusted and dare he say, maybe even loved, more than his own father, use this to play him?

Now that was a reality check he could have done without. From the day he was shipped to California, he knew he would never be welcome back home again. So, he found a new home in the military, and he would have done fine without the father figure that Joe foisted on him. He was a tough kid. Always had been. Joe messed up the balance, gave him something he probably could have done without, in more ways than one. Just so he could use that status and influence when it suited him the most. It was all a manipulation, all along. Joe cared, but always with an agenda. What that agenda was eluded Steve. Loyalty to his mother? His father? Never to him? Not when it came to those two, anyway.

And now he was imprisoned thousands of miles away. Why he was still alive was a surprise. A pleasant surprise. He may not have had the same relationship with Joe anymore that his 18-years-old self did, or even his 24 years old self, for that matter, but Joe was family. Always had been. And in the words of Danny, he was pathologically loyal. There was no way he was not going to go after Joe. There was no way he was going to abandon the man who filled the vacuum both his parents had created all those years ago.

If there was one thing that made him good as Joe's own flesh and blood, it was this. They were both pathologically loyal!


	2. Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loyalty came easy. Trust had to be earned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not entirely sure where I am going with this one.  
> Any suggestions, constructive criticism, feedback (including reviews and kudos), and ideas are more than appreciated.

So, it _was_ his mother that Joe had been loyal to, all along. Joe had never even told his best friend that his wife was still alive. And how long had Joe known about Wo Fat?

No, he could not think about that right now. His chest was hurting. Probably a couple of broken ribs. Or at least cracked. But Joe was free. They had recovered the bodies of the American soldiers, reminding him of when he went to North Korea to recover Freddie’s body.

What people like Danny never understood about him was, after every betrayal he had suffered, his own desire not to let down the people he loved just grew stronger. It was all-consuming.

Did he trust his own mother? No! The woman had not even showed up after his transplant. What kind of mother did that? He knew what kind. The kind who left two children and a loving husband behind faked her own death, made her own son run after her across continents like crazy, let her son be tortured for her secrets which weren’t even worth saving as they all came out eventually, and always lying to him. The kind of mother who preferred an arms dealer and a terrorist over her own first born. The kind of mother who let that terrorist hurt and torture her son, almost kill him, and still wouldn’t admit her fault.

And yet, the moment he found out that she was captured, he had left everything behind to rescue her.

She still hadn’t asked about the transplant. Steve knew that she knew. Because Joe knew. And he really did not want to think about that connection. Joe was loyal to his mother. Why, he could never understand. He could never see himself doing that to Danny. He could never betray Danny’s trust like that. He could never betray anyone’s trust like that. And that’s what it always boiled down to.

There were things you never put your loved ones through.

He turned his face to look at Joe who was sitting next to him. He just did not understand people who put anything above family. People like Joe and his mother. He had done his share of horrific deeds in the name of God and country. He had killed and maimed. He had written a ‘Dear Danno’ letter which still got Danny irked. And this time he could not even leave a letter or a voicemail. There was going to be a lot of yelling in the near future, which made him smile.

‘What are you smiling at?’, asked Joe, who did not look like he had been in captivity long. If anything, he seemed to have gained a few extra pounds.

‘You have gained weight. Did they feed you malasadas in there?’

Deflection was the way to go.

Joe seemed unimpressed, with his eyes expressionlessly staring at him.

He stared right back with his fakest smile plastered on his face.

He owed Joe loyalty, but Joe had lost his trust. He gave his trust easily, but only the first time.

There were no second chances.

 


	3. Not so alone...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe was a bastard but Steve has more going for him than he ever thought he deserved, wanted, or even needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I write because despite the obvious depiction of a mostly happy-go-lucky guy, Steve gets insomnia and that's not just because of nightmares.  
> Thank you for all the kudos and reviews. I look forward to suggestions, constructive criticism, kudos, reviews, and any other feedback you nice folk can offer. Thank you for reading!

The flight back was quiet for the most part. Joe continued staring at him but did not ask any questions and he did not feel the need to make conversation. Last time he had seen Joe was over three years ago when he went to rescue Danny from Colombia. Since then, Joe had been incommunicado. He hadn’t contacted Steve even after the transplant.

‘How have you been, Steve?’, suddenly Joe asked, and Steve was startled from his reverie. Not for the first time, he was surprised by Joe’s uncanny ability to read him.

‘Fine! I’m fine. Why?’ Steve tried to keep his tone conversational. He wasn’t sure if he had succeeded. He wasn’t even sure he didn’t sound like a petulant 5 year old just then.

‘No reason. Are you still in the reserves?’ Joe was being coy, and any other time, Steve may have indulged him but not today.

‘Who wants to know? You or Doris?’ This time Steve could not keep his tone neutral.

‘Why? Going to reactivate?’ Joe was a son of a bitch.

He wanted to say ‘yes’, just to see the look on Joe’s face. Too bad he was never really a good liar when it came to his own family. They could always read him very well.

No wonder Danny kept wondering how he ever got anywhere in Naval Intelligence, especially as a trained and accomplished interrogator.

‘Yes, Joe! I am going to be reactivated. SEAL team 6.’ Sarcasm and bitterness bled into his words, but Joe’s face remained unchanged. It was like talking to a Stone Buddha.

‘You don’t need to leave the Navy.’ Seriously. Steve could not believe that this guy used to boost his morale. Maybe he didn’t really boost Steve’s morale. He just made him feel worthless and that was what urged Steve to be his best. Who knew. He didn’t like to disappoint people.

‘Why are you talking to me about this? I just rescued your ass from a Nigerian prison. Do I still need to prove to you that I am very good at my job?’ He said it coolly and matter-of-factly.

Yes!

‘I can make some calls…’ Joe really was a son of a bitch!

‘I don’t need your help. People know what I can do. Did Doris put you up for this?’

‘Seems to me you miss her, Steve. I can get a message to her to contact you.’ Joe, the fucker, was like a dog with a bone. Steve just couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just leave it alone. What was he getting out of this?

If looks could kill, Joe would have turned into ashes from Steve’s glare alone.

The worst part of this whole conversation was, Joe was probably right. Not about Steve missing Doris, but about his ability to still get in touch with her whenever he so wished. He was wrong about how Steve felt about this nugget of information, though.

These two people he loved so dearly did not deserve the loyalty or the love that Steve still had for them, after all this.

But, on the flip side, he had found this new family, that loved him and was loyal to him even when he did not think he deserved it. Who trusted him and whom he trusted. Who came for him, again and again. Maybe life wasn’t fair sometimes, but sometimes, that unfairness worked in favor of the likes of him, when he got a whole big group of people who would lay their life on the line for him, berate him for putting them in that position, and then do it all over again. And berate him again…

People who always had his back.

His very own Ohana!


End file.
